What Social Science Can Do for Chinese Studies

1964 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
Obvious Reason

I Am the joker in the pack—not simply for the obvious reason that I am not an American, but also, and much more significantly, because I have no right to sit on a platform with people learned in Sinology. That I have been invited to join them says a great deal about American broadmindedness and something too about the underdeveloped state of Chinese studies in my own country. But in a way my disabilities qualify me: I am doubly an outsider (maybe that was why I was asked) and can therefore be relied on to be biased. Prejudice is a condition for argument.

What the Study of China Can Do for Social Science

1964 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. William Skinner
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Fundamental Change ◽  
Specific Research ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
Entire Society ◽  
Great Tradition

In recent years the cry has gone up: Sinology is dead; long live Chinese studies! And in this apothegm, by contrast with its prototype, a fundamental change is implied. Whereas old-time Sinology was given shape by its tools, so that Sinological skills defined the field and became an end in themselves, Chinese studies is shaped by its subject matter and Sinological skills are but means to analytic ends. Whereas traditional Sinology fostered uncritical immersion in a single civilization, modern Chinese studies brings at least that degree of impartial detachment which the comparative method implies. Whereas Sinology focused on China's “great tradition” and strove to capture the very ethos of the literati whose works it studied, Chinese studies today attempts to encompass the entire society and cultural product of China, to study its regional “little traditions” along with the “great,” and to empathize for heuristic purposes with nonélite social groups as well as with the literati. Sinology, a discipline unto itself, is being replaced by Chinese studies, a multidisciplinary endeavor with specific research objectives. As Professor Wright has suggested, what is text for the Sinologist becomes, for the disciplinary student of China, evidence.

Discussant Remarks

1964 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-536
Author(s):  
Rhoads Murphey
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Critical Measure ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
Cultural Terms ◽  
Point Of No Return

The leitmotiv of the panel as a whole may be found in Mrs. Wright's phrase: “All history is implicitly comparative.” This particular apothegm should be pasted into the hats of all students of China. Mrs. Wright's hat clearly needs no such adornment, but it may well be the best way of distinguishing between a Sinology that is indeed not enough (in Mr. Levenson's sense) and a body of learning which should rightly stand at the very head of scholarship. Mr. Skinner tells us that “there is nothing particularly exceptional about Chinese villages when compared to those in other peasant societies. …” But surely the exceptional quality of the Chinese village is the fact of its incorporation within a greater whole, in cultural terms, which is, at least in degree, without parallel anywhere. Is this not part of the point, and a most convincing and important one, of Mr. Skinner's argument? I can only echo and applaud Mr. Freedman's final sentences, and commend their eloquence: “Cooperation which amounts to ingestion is cannibalism. The usefulness of social science to Chinese studies depends on its being allowed to be itself.” Amen. The point of no return in the care and feeding of scholars who concern themselves with China can be determined only by a very nice measure, to which I can provide no key—but I would emphasize that it is indeed a critical measure, and that it is just as critical for other disciplines as for anthropology.

Preparatory Procedures for Electron Microscopic Analysis at the Molecular Level of Resolution

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 516-520
Author(s):  
F.J. Sjostrand
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Molecular Level ◽  
Microscopic Analysis ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Cellular Structures ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Technical Developments ◽  
Thin Sectioning ◽  
Obvious Reason

In the 1940's and 1950's electron microscopy conferences were attended with everybody interested in learning about the latest technical developments for one very obvious reason. There was the electron microscope with its outstanding performance but nobody could make very much use of it because we were lacking proper techniques to prepare biological specimens. The development of the thin sectioning technique with its perfectioning in 1952 changed the situation and systematic analysis of the structure of cells could now be pursued. Since then electron microscopists have in general become satisfied with the level of resolution at which cellular structures can be analyzed when applying this technique. There has been little interest in trying to push the limit of resolution closer to that determined by the resolving power of the electron microscope.

Maximum Likelihood for Social Science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Ward ◽  
John S. Ahlquist
Keyword(s):  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Social Science

The Education of Research Psychologists in Sweden

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Knut Larsson ◽  
Josef Frischer
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Doctoral Programs ◽  
Science Department ◽  
Research Education ◽  
The Core ◽  
Social Science Department ◽  
Learning Alliance ◽  
Laissez Faire ◽  
The Government

The education of researchers in Sweden is regulated by a nationwide reform implemented in 1969, which intended to limit doctoral programs to 4 years without diminishing quality. In an audit performed by the government in 1996, however, it was concluded that the reform had failed. Some 80% of the doctoral students admitted had dropped out, and only 1% finished their PhD degree within the stipulated 4 years. In an attempt to determine the causes of this situation, we singled out a social-science department at a major Swedish university and interviewed those doctoral students who had dropped out of the program. This department was found to be representative of the nationwide figures found in the audit. The students interviewed had all completed at least 50% of their PhD studies and had declared themselves as dropouts from this department. We conclude that the entire research education was characterized by a laissez-faire attitude where supervisors were nominated but abdicated. To correct this situation, we suggest that a learning alliance should be established between the supervisor and the student. At the core of the learning alliance is the notion of mutually forming a platform form which work can emerge in common collaboration. The learning alliance implies a contract for work, stating its goals, the tasks to reach these goals, and the interpersonal bonding needed to give force and endurance to the endeavor. Constant scrutiny of this contract and a mutual concern for the learning alliance alone can contribute to its strength.

Assessment of journals in social science psychology.

1989 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 961-964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Feingold
Keyword(s):  
Social Science

Social science and the press: A case study and its implications.

1981 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 480-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell H. Weigel ◽  
Jeffrey J. Pappas
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
The Press
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